Paris Olympics: Satwik-Chirag storm into quarterfinals, Ponnappa-Castro crash out in group stage

They endured defeat against the Australian duo of Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu 15-21, 10-21 in straight games on Tuesday.

India’s star men’s duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty punched their ticket for the quarter-finals of badminton doubles with a straight-game win over Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto on Tuesday at the Paris Olympics.

The Indian pair, which is ranked number three, reached the knockout stage as the Group C leaders.

Satwik and Chirag dominated the All-England winners and clinched 21-13, 21-13 win in a game that lasted 40 minutes.

The Indian duo worked hard for each point to register a comfortable victory. The Indian duo raced to a 5-3 lead early in the first game but the Indonesian pair bounded back by taking two consecutive points and levelling the scoreline 5-5.

It became a back-and-forth affair, but the Indian duo upped their game and eventually took a four-point lead, making the scoreline 15-11. The duo didn’t look back and raced to a 21-13 win in the first game.
The second game was a similar story, with both pairs going neck-to-neck for each point. After 11-8, the Indian star duo took six consecutive points to take a step closer to the knockout stage.

The relentless aggressive attack continued as they launched a flurry of shots to seal the game.
Meanwhile, in the women’s team event, the Indian women’s duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto succumbed to their third consecutive defeat in Group C to finish fourth and crash out in the group stage.

They endured defeat against the Australian duo of Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu 15-21, 10-21 in straight games on Tuesday.

The Indian women’s duo struggled throughout their outing against the Australian team. (ANI)

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